


another story

by saemiqlon



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Teachers, M/M, Short One Shot, listen in my defence, overuse of the phrase Mr Kirstein
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29804031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saemiqlon/pseuds/saemiqlon
Summary: Mr Kirstein shrugged, his eyes returning to his device. “I guess I never really liked that man. Keep this between us, okay, kids? But he’s like—like an annoying roommate. You know, the kind of person to leave his socks everywhere and have you pick them up while he’s playing video games, or perhaps the kind that forgets to dry the laundry so you’re left wearing your bad suit for the day. That’s the kind of person he is.” Another pause. “Or I’m assuming.”Huh. That’s oddly specific.(Or, the mystery of Mr Forster and Mr Kirstein.)
Relationships: Floch Forster/Jean Kirstein
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	another story

Hitch stretched her arms above her head, yawning. She furrowed her eyebrows, annoyed, when Annie nudged her almost immediately. She knew that what was about to come out of Annie’s mouth was another lecture about how she should close her mouth when she yawns, so she tuned her out. They’d just had their department staff meeting, and Hitch was exhausted, to say the least. It was one thing having a regular staff meeting. It was another thing to have that said staff meeting with two “acquaintances” who were constantly at each other’s throats.

Speaking of which—“Hey, can you believe that Floch actually did that?”

Annie arched an eyebrow, glancing over at Hitch. _So she wasn’t listening to me._ She held in the urge to sigh and replied, “Did what?”

“You know how he and Jean were fighting the whole time? But when Jean pitched his idea, Floch went all,”—this is where Hitch started imitating Floch—“‘I agree with what he has to say, actually. Not a horrible idea.’ Like, what? Does he hate him or not?”

Annie shrugged. “You can hate someone and still admit that their idea isn’t complete garbage.”

Hitch hummed in response, agreeing. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just shocked… They looked like they were going to kill each other in the first half of the meeting, you know.”

“I always look like I’m gonna kill you.” Annie nodded towards the hallways in front of them, where students were slowly filing in. “You should probably worry about how you’re gonna get to your next class. Lunch is over.”

Hitch waved a hand, as if dismissing that concern. “It’s on the same floor as here, I’ll be fine.”

Just as she said that, someone who had been rushing out of the teacher’s room bumped into her, almost sending her falling forward. Luckily, there was Annie there to steady her. When she looked up and saw the red hair, she immediately knew who it was, and put on a smile as she yelled, “Hey! Be careful!”

Floch turned around, his eyes widening when he realised he almost crashed into his friend. “Sorry about that!”

“Buy me a drink as an apology!”

Floch laughed and raised a hand to wave as he continued to run, charging outside the doors. Hitch shrugged off the incident, offering a remark of, “He seems like he’s in a hurry.” On the other hand, however, someone had been right behind them and saw the entire thing go down. That person ran a hand through his light brown mullet, shaking his head.

“He should seriously be more careful,” he said. Hitch turned around, and before she was going to say hello to Jean, he cut her off. “I can’t believe I’m working with someone so clumsy.”

As he walked away, Hitch offered Annie another look, as if to say, ‘See? Weird.’ Annie just brushed it off and reminded Hitch about her next class.

* * *

“I’m glad I have a class with Mr Kirstein next,” Gabi thought aloud, arms over her head as she walked up the stairs. “What about you guys?”

“I have a class with your… uncle?” Udo replied nonchalantly, scrolling through his phone.

“Mr Braun is her cousin,” Falco corrected.

Udo just shrugged. “He looks like an uncle next to her.”

“I am _so_ telling him you said that,” Gabi laughed, but it only earned another shrug from Udo. _That boy really turns into someone else when he’s on his phone._ Gabi was about to speak again, but then lost her thoughts when Floch ran past her. It only gave her another thought. “Mr Forster looks like he’s in a hurry.”

“He looks a little bit all over the place,” Zofia said honestly. “Anyways, better Mr Kirstein than him, right, Gabi? Mr Kirstein’s really easy on the eyes, too, right?” She elbowed Gabi playfully.

Gabi rolled her eyes. “Shut up. I go to school to learn, mind you. Besides, he’s married.”

“ _He is?_ ” Udo asked, finally putting his phone down. The rest of the teenagers looked at him as if to say, _‘Now you’re interested?’_

Gabi replied, “I think so? I mean, he has a ring.”

 _Speak of the devil_ , the four of them thought, as walking towards them right at that moment was none other than Mr Kirstein. Udo squinted, and he caught the glint of a golden band wrapped around Mr Kirstein’s ring finger. He quickly looked away, but before he was about to say anything, Mr Kirstein spoke to them.

“You all should be going to your class instead of looking at me. Gabi, Falco, that means you two.” He walked away coldly, leaving the four flustered.

“I don’t understand how you can like him,” Udo spoke as they walked down the hallway. “I mean, he’s a good teacher, but he’s so… scary. Mr Forster is a bit all over the place, like Zofia said, and sometimes he talks about stuff that’s really off-topic, but at least he makes jokes and stuff like that.”

“Yeah,” Falco agreed. “Mr Forster is fun. Mr Kirstein is, like… the opposite of that.”

“Speak for yourselves,” Gabi replied. “I like Mr Kirstein. He actually _teaches_ and makes me wanna learn. Even if that means scaring me into doing my assignments, at least I’m doing something, you know?”

“Yeah, I get that.” Falco stopped in front of his locker. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t kill us with his lecture today.”

Udo and Zofia walked away from Gabi and Falco—now gathering their books from their lockers—as they waved goodbye. While putting her books in a neat stack on top of her neck-height locker, Gabi wondered if maybe they were right. She never had a class with Mr Forster—she didn’t take history—so she wouldn’t know how he compared to Mr Kirstein. But she did know something about the two that sparked her attention. 

Throughout the class, Gabi had her laptop open, typing down notes diligently. She looked over at Falco for a moment, who was sitting in the front row to her right, and saw that the other was online on Discord. So, hey, why not flood the server with her thoughts?

 **her majesty gabi:** hey did you guys know about mr kirstein and mr forster’s rivalry??  
**Zofia is studying:** Their what now?  
**falcoisalive:** their rivalry  
**Zofia is studying:** I heard her, but I don’t know what she’s talking about  
**udo (verified softboy):** apparently they hate each other or whatever, you can ask mr kirstein about mr forster and he’ll say something like “yeah he’s dumb lol”

 _Huh._ Gabi wanted to test that theory.

The lecture cooled down quickly, as they only discussed one poem that day. As everyone typed away on their laptops, trying hard to finish their major essays before the deadline, Gabi thought on and on about what Udo said. It wasn’t unlikely that Mr Kirstein would say something like that, but Gabi always thought he would be professional—that was the image of Mr Kirstein that she had in mind. Could it be that sheer hatred for Mr Forster was the one thing that could make him crack?

Gabi raised her hand in an order to find out. “Sir?”

“Yes, Gabi? Do you have a question?” Mr Kirstein didn’t even look up from his laptop.

“No sir, just wanna ask something out of topic. Did you hear that Mr Forster threw a pen at Udo’s classmate?”

This time, Mr Kirstein looked up. “Did he?” 

“I don’t know,” Gabi replied, “but that’s what the rumours say.”

Mr Kirstein clicked his tongue. “Tch. You shouldn’t believe in rumours, Gabi. Though…” A pause. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he did that. He’s… an unusual specimen.”

“What do you mean, sir?”

Mr Kirstein shrugged, his eyes returning to his device. “I guess I never really liked that man. Keep this between us, okay, kids? But he’s like—like an annoying roommate. You know, the kind of person to leave his socks everywhere and have you pick them up while he’s playing video games, or perhaps the kind that forgets to dry the laundry so you’re left wearing your bad suit for the day. That’s the kind of person he is.” Another pause. “Or I’m assuming.”

 _Huh. That’s oddly specific._ Gabi decided not to pay it any mind, though, and when Falco turned around with a look of _‘Why did you have to ask that?’_ she simply shrugged, and started typing into the Discord server again. 

* * *

Floch immediately groaned as soon as the door closed behind him. To say that he was exhausted was an understatement. They had a staff meeting, _and_ he had several one-hour classes back-to-back. Guess there’s a reason why people hate Mondays. He took off his shoes and kicked them to the right side of the door, then hung his coat up. As soon as he smelled something—his stomach growled a little—coming from the kitchen, he waltzed his way in as gracefully as a 28 year-old going through their quarter-life crisis could.

He hugged his partner from behind, not minding how his face was buried in his back. He just needed him close.

“Get off, I’m cooking,” his partner said nonchalantly.

“Ouch. You hurt me, babe.”

“Don’t ‘babe’ me. What are you, seventeen?” Floch grumbled as he let go, choosing to peek at what his partner was cooking. “It’s spaghetti. We don’t have anything else and I’m too lazy to go buy stuff.” Floch just hummed in response. “Hey, did you really throw a pen at some kid? I thought Eren was the one with anger issues.”

“Listen, in my defence, those kids had this horrifying Babadook costume,” Floch tried to explain, “and they turned off the lights before I entered the class, and come on, Jean, you know that you’d also be horrified in that situation. So yes, I did throw a pen at some kid. Some kid in a horror movie costume.”

Jean shook his head, chuckling as he imagined the scenario. Floch had never been fond of horror movies. “Did you hit their eye?”

“No. I think it landed on the floor. Would you have wanted me to hit their eye?”

“No, I don’t think I can handle the students asking me about you if you did.”

Floch looked up at Jean. “Wait. The students ask me about you?”

“Just today, actually,” Jean recalled. “Gabi Braun, I think? She asked me if she knew that you threw a pen at Udo’s classmate. And I asked if you did, and now I know that you did, so thank you for that.”

Floch raised a hand to massage his forehead. “My God, why do the students remember me for doing stupid things…”

“Because you always do stupid things?”

“Shut up. And can we stop pretending that we hate each other? Like, come on. What are we, seventeen?”

“Why? You have a problem with it?” Jean raised an eyebrow. “It does us wonders during staff meetings, though. Whenever we have an idea to pitch, we have the other back it up, and everyone’s so shocked by that that the idea is chosen. Also, kind of your fault for not choosing to take my last name. You made this way more convenient.”

“Because I wanted _you_ to take _my_ last name,” Floch reminded him. “And listen, I know, but consider this: I want to hold your hand.”

“And have all the students coo at us and start rumours and talk about us endlessly? No thanks.” Floch scoffed. Like that was enough of a reason to stop him from holding Jean’s hand every change he got. “Plus, it’s fine. You have me now, don’t you?”

Floch smiled at that, then got on his toes to kiss Jean on the cheek. “That I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> flojean are married sorry i don't make the rules 
> 
> please tell me what you thought about this! i really like this idea and i think it has the potential to be more than a oneshot so someone heyyy pick it up haha you're so sexy


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